


Saving Ghost

by violentv0id



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Suicidal Ideation, Suicidal Thoughts, and dont believe Ghost wouldnt try to do thier very best to save him, in which i dont accept Quirrel is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23180206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violentv0id/pseuds/violentv0id
Summary: Ghost finds Quirrel, and takes action when a fear settles and furiously beats wings of anxiety in their chest. Seeing him staring out over the Blue Lake unsettles them and they won't leave until they know he'll be okay. They won't lose their friend.
Relationships: The Knight & Quirrel (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 222





	Saving Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, Hollow Knight absolutely broke my heart with what happened to Quirrel.
> 
> Therefore, I had to write this despite I haven't even finished the game yet-- So! I hope you all can enjoy this bit of a fix-it fic and enjoy the gentleness after the angst.

Something wasn’t right. It really, truly, was not. Quirrel, the bug who was always filled with curiosity. Filled with enthusiasm to find new places and venture forwards to see all the sights of all the areas of Hallownest, was simply sitting… Defeated. He looked drained, in a way that Ghost hadn’t seen in all the other times that they had come across the pillbug explorer. A worry sprung up and settled uncomfortably in their hollow chest.

Slowly, they approached where Quirrel was sitting and staring out over the Blue lake. His nail loosely hanging from the strap on his back, and the scarf ‘round his head fluttering barely in the chill breeze blowing over the two bugs.

When Ghost made their company known, Quirrel turned and gave a sad smile at the small knight. It was wrong, this was _wrong_ , that _smile_ was _**wrong**_. It made the unease violently flap its metaphorical wings in their tiny chest. 

The words that followed, spilling from the pillbug’s mouth tiredly, made nothing better. It sounded like he had given up. As if the world didn’t have so many more places to see, or more like- As if he no longer wished to see these places.

Against their will and catching them by surprise, inky void welled up in their hollow eye sockets and began a slow staining path down their usually pristine white mask. Hurrying closer, they wrapped their arms around Quirrel as best as they could for someone that was only half the other bug’s size. 

Apparently, this action caught Quirrel off guard by a longshot. Eyes widening and the vacant and defeated expression banished from his face by the sudden embrace from the hollow vessel. A hand instinctively shooting up to rest gently against the barely shaking shoulders of the smaller bug.

“What is wrong, small friend…?” He questioned in a voice more like his usual, but with concern laced through it. Any hint of emotion was far better than the bleak and toneless voice from earlier. Ghost desperately wished they had a voice, wished they could tell Quirrel how they wanted him to stay. How he’d helped them without realizing, giving them hope and a reason and want to go onwards even when they were beaten down time and time again.

Wanted to tell him to stay, to not leave them behind as it so very obviously seemed that he had been planning, judging by the empty look he’d been aiming at the pristine and dangerous waters of the Blue Lake. The waters that were deeper than they could comprehend and the waters that would be the death of any regular bug. 

It _scared_ them, and they didn’t want to lose the bug that they considered to be a friend. One that they’d seen on their wide travels in their horrible journey to the task they didn’t even know what the end was to be. The pillbug’s presence had soothed them in the times they found him, being able to relax for just that short time on the benches and sharing silent companionship. Being able to relax and not worry about the Infected things running about and wanting to end their journey.

Their thoughts were cut short by Quirrel tightening his hold on them, bringing his other arm up to wrap around their smaller form. It seemed tears of his own had begun overflowing and running down his own face, mouth twisted and expression one of pure sadness and a hint of regret.

Ghost simply returned the hug tighter as well, pressing their mask against Quirrel’s chest, as if they could hold him there. Keep him grounded and keep him from leaving them in the Infection-riddled world alone and without a friend. 

“I’m so sorry,“ the choked-up words came from Quirrel with a struggle through the tears, “for what I may have been thinking of doing, my dear little Ghost.” Inky tears simply seemed to well up faster and fall in thicker rivulets down Ghost’s mask at that sentence. Their worries and fears confirmed and leaving no doubt in their mind at what may have happened had they not stumbled across Quirrel here at this time.

Reaching arms up that barely reached, they placed hands on both sides of Quirrel’s face and patted gently. Unable to comfort with words, and acutely aware of how inexperienced they were with truly expressing emotions. For they weren’t made for emotions, but they no longer were hollow as they had been intended to be. An imperfect vessel and a failure, but they didn’t care.

Stretching up with effort, they clunked their mask against Quirrel’s face in an attempt of comfort. Not planning on leaving the pillbug on his own for quite some time… Perhaps they could even convince him to come along on their travels. That would make things less lonely. And also, it would give them someone to focus on, to protect when things got rough and they felt like giving up themself.

“Don’t worry small friend… I believe you have managed to pull me free from my, ah, less than savory thoughts.” A small soothing relief made the furiously beating wings of anxiety in their chest cease just a bit. Slowly, the abyssal tears running down their mask dried up. Leaving inky stained trails down their pale mask. 

Removing the cloth from around his head, Quirrel carefully wiped away the stains before wiping away his own tears with a shuddering sigh. Trying to regain his composure and focus on the smaller bug still clinging tightly to him. 

They rightly had feared he was simply going to disappear. A deep sadness had nested in his chest and whispered vile things to him, and he’d nearly given in to those awful whispers… But it seemed that this small vessel, full of emotion they weren’t meant to feel, had saved him. He deeply regretted the sadness that he had seemed to cause the small bug, and once more wrapped arms around them and held them close.

Perhaps a new chapter could be added, one that they could write together. Quirrel found that, with those thoughts, maybe he could find it in himself to continue onwards. To travel with Ghost and accompany them on their own quest. Yes, that would be quite nice indeed, he thought.


End file.
